Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Tip 68
Use a VIP Mailbox
Mail features a way of prioritizing email from certain people who you value
above others—a feature Apple calls the
VIP mailbox
(short for Very Important
People, of course).
The feature isn't activated by default and can't be found on any menu but is
actually easy to set up.
Configuring VIP Mail
To activate the feature, you must first mark at least one person who sends
you email as a VIP. To do this, select any email from the individual, and then
click the empty star alongside their name in the mail, or right-click their name
in the From field of an email and select Add to VIPs.
Once you do this, a new VIP mailbox will appear in the mailbox list sidebar
and Favorites toolbar (if you have either visible—you can select to view either
from the View menu). Selecting the new mailbox will cause your mail to be
filtered so that only VIPs are visible, although you can also further filter the
list of mails by selecting individual VIPs in the list that appears beneath.
Be Notified Only of VIP Mail
You can configure Mail so that you're notified within Notification Center only
of new VIP mail. To do so, open Mail's Preferences dialog box (Mail→Prefer-
ences), and ensure the General tab is selected. Then select VIPs from the New
Message Notifications drop-down list.
To return to being notified of all mail at a future date, repeat this step, but
select Inbox Only from the drop-down list.
Deactivate the VIP Mailbox
To remove somebody from the VIP list, simply click once more the star
alongside their name in an email, or right-click their name and click Remove
from VIPs. To completely deactivate the VIP function, remove all VIPs in this
way, and then quit and restart Mail.
